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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoCHRIS BICKFORD | THE NEW YORK TIMESThe barricades were down and members of the U.S. Park Police were back on duty early yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial and other sites in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Barriers came down at federal memorials and National Park Service sites and thousands of furloughed federal workers — relieved but wary — returned to work across the country yesterday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown.

Among the sites reopening were Yosemite National Park in California, the Smithsonian Institution’s network of popular museums and the World War II memorial in Washington, which had been the scene of protests over the shutdown.

“Just to be able to get back to serving the public is so important,” said Greg Bettwy, preparing to return to work with the Smithsonian’s human-resources department.

Some workers confronted backlogs of email and paperwork; others voiced concern that a gridlocked Congress might trigger another shutdown in January.

“The phrase everyone is talking about is kicking the can down the road,” said Richard Marcus of Silver Spring, Md., who has worked at the National Archives and Records Administration for 29 years. “We’d hate to have to live through this all over again.”

The federal workers who were furloughed or worked without pay during the shutdown will get back pay in their next paychecks, which for most employees come on Oct. 29.

At the Labor Department, Secretary Thomas Perez greeted workers with an email telling them he understood how much the furlough disrupted their lives.

“Unfortunately, as President Obama correctly noted, you are occasionally called on to perform your remarkably important work in a climate that too often treats federal employees and contractors as a punching bag,” Perez said.

The Defense Department called back about 7,000 furloughed civilians. In an open letter to the workforce, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said “To those returning from furlough: know that the work you perform is incredibly valued by your military teammates and by me. I appreciate your professionalism and your patience during this difficult period of time.”

The National Institutes of Health will see lingering aftereffects — NIH warned university scientists not to expect a quick resumption of research dollars.

The Capitol’s visitor center planned to resume tours yesterday, and the World War II Memorial on Washington’s central Mall, a flashpoint for anger over the forced closure of national monuments and parks, opened early yesterday as a park employee in hip boots waded into the fountain to clean it.

Robert Marimon, a 91-year-old retired electrical engineer and World War II veteran from Avon Lake, Ohio, said this was his first stop on a U.S. capital visit, and he would have been disappointed had it been closed.

“If it was closed, I was planning to try to get over the barriers one way or another,” he said.

Patrice Roberts, who works for the Department of Homeland Security, said she wasn’t prepared for the emotional lows of the past 16 days.

“It’s just frustrating having that kind of control over your life and just having it taken away from me,” Roberts said. “I’ll be better prepared next time.”

The National Zoo was set to reopen today, although the popular panda cam went live yesterday morning — giving fans a view of a cub wriggling about as her mother, Mei Xiang, tucked her paws under her chin.

In Atlanta, tears welled in Denise Traicoff’s eyes as she talked about the work she missed doing for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Traicoff works with officials in other countries to improve disease investigation and health programs, and has been focusing on polio. The shutdown meant such communications were stopped and colleagues in other countries abandoned.

Near Dayton, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force reopened to the public yesterday morning. And the Athens and Ironton ranger districts of the Wayne National Forest in southeastern Ohio opened at the same time.

Information from Reuters and the Dispatch staff was included in this story.